Local

A view of Waterbury Hospital Wednesday afternoon. A Texas company that was trying to form a joint venture with Waterbury's two hospitals has confirmed that a letter was sent to both Saint Mary's Hospital and Waterbury Hospital terminating the agreement made a year ago. Erin Covey Republican American.

WATERBURY — It took about 18 months, a threatened strike and the intervention of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's office, but a union representing about 250 employees at Waterbury Hospital finally reached a tentative contract agreement this week.

Steve Thornton, vice president of District 1199 of the New England Healthcare Employees Union, a local of the Service Employees International Union, said union negotiators and a portion of the membership on Wednesday unanimously approved presenting the tentative agreement to the full rank-and-file for a vote, which could be held next week.

The union represents 250 patient care associates, unit clerks, supply personnel and maintenance workers. Their previous three-year contract was set to expire Feb. 29 of last year, but was extended four times until the hospital refused to do it again in August.

According to Thornton, under the terms of the tentative deal with the hospital, the contract would expire on Feb. 29, 2016, making it a four-year deal. Union members would receive two raises during the life of the contract, 2 percent in March of this year and 2 percent in March 2015.

Union members also would retain the ability to earn overtime pay after eight hours of work each day, but made a concession that allows the hospital to impose the same paid time off system it has for non-union workers, in which each employee is given a certain amount of paid time off rather than separate allotments of holidays, sick days and vacation days.

That concession, however, would end two months before the contract expires, Thornton said.

"One of our principles has always been, if we have to give something up it should not be permanent," he said. "That's why this is such an important item."

The deal also includes a successorship clause, guaranteeing that any existing contract would be honored if the hospital is sold or enters into a merger or joint venture agreement. Waterbury Hospital is currently negotiating a joint venture agreement with Vanguard Health Systems, a for-profit hospital management company based in Nashville, Tenn.

The tentative deal comes about three weeks after the union's negotiating committee voted unanimously on Jan. 23 to issue a 10-day strike notice. That notice, however, was never formally delivered to hospital officials.

Thornton said the notice was withheld at the request of the governor's office.

"During the last week of January, when we informed the governor's office we were close to a strike, ... his office made the recommendations to hold off on the notice and to sit down and meet," he said.

Darlene Stromstad, the hospital's president and chief executive officer, said the outside help came at the right time.

"After so much time, it did seem that our process felt stuck," she said in a message emailed Wednesday evening to the hospital's directors, managers and supervisors. ".. Through the intervention of Governor Dannel Malloy's Office, we agreed to come back to the table for a final attempt to find resolution, limiting the possibility of a strike."

Two meetings with the governor's staff were held in Hartford, attended by union and hospital representatives, Thornton said. The meetings were held during the last week of January and the first week of February, he said.

The strike-notice vote came about a month after hospital officials declared talks with the union had reached an impasse, a declaration the union disputed. Declaring an impasse, though, allowed hospital officials to put in place in the first week of January some of their contract proposals, which they were allowed to do under the National Labor Relations Act.

The union, meanwhile, had filed two separate charges of unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board, including one over the hospital's decision to make flu shots mandatory for all employees — union and non-union — as of September 2012.

Union member Karen McKinnon, an operating room surgical aide, formally protested the requirement, saying it violates her rights. She eventually agreed, however, to get the shot.

Under the tentative agreement, the union would withdraw its filings from the NLRB, while the hospital agrees that anyone disciplined as a result of refusing to get the flu shot, including McKinnon, would have their work records cleared, Thornton said, adding that the flu shot requirement will now be subject to negotiation.

In her note to managers, Stromstad said the tentative deal was reached because both sides understood what was at stake.

"We reached agreement because both understood that prolonged negotiations were potentially harmful and distracting to the future of our hospital and our employees," she wrote. "And ... to reach agreement, both sides had to choose to focus on the greater good to move to a place of resolution."

She added, "suffice (it) to say, neither side got everything we wanted — and that's what compromise is all about."

Thornton said about 70 rank-and-file union members were in the room Wednesday when the negotiating committee put the tentative agreement to a vote, and all voted in favor of recommending approval by the full membership. He said that while the membership must have time to review the complete proposal, he doesn't "anticipate a problem" in getting it approved.

Follow Us

Post a reader comment

We encourage your feedback and dialog. Please be civil and respectful.If you're witty, to the point and quotable, your reader comments may also be included on the Around the Towns page of The Sunday Republican. Readers must be registered and logged in to post comments on the site. Registration is free. Click Here to register.
A Subscription is not required to post comments only a Registration.